Now I’m recalling all the law-and-order conservative posturing when the Cambridge professor was arrested in his own home and the president dared to suggest the arrest might have been a stupid overreaction on the part of the arresting government employee.

Will we hear the same thing from them now, or the opposite, poor things.
(It’ll be interesting to hear how this was different than Watergate too — only in being even more spectacularly psychopathic? And whether the Congressional Republicans will continue to pretend the CIA would never lie . . .)

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Think they acted alone as burglars and spies, or do we need to ask everyone from Michael Steele to Mitch McConnell and Dick Armey and the Family and Prop8 preachers “what did they know and when did they know it?”

A staff member in the office told the FBI that two of the suspects, including the son of an acting U.S. Attorney, wore white hard harts, tool belts and flourescent vests and said they needed to fix a problem with the phone system.

According to an FBI affidavit, O’Keefe was already sitting in the waiting area and recorded the men on his cell phone when they walked in. A federal law enforcement official said one of the suspects was picked up in a car a couple of blocks away with a listening device that could pick up transmissions. . .

. . .The fourth suspect, Robert Flanagan, the son of Shreveport-based acting U.S. Attorney Bill Flanagan, was released earlier Tuesday. His father’s office declined comment.

All four were charged with entering federal property under false pretenses for the purpose of committing a felony, which carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. . .

Dai . . . is a former assistant director of a program at Trinity Washington University that taught students about careers in intelligence, university president Patricia McGuire said.

The program was part of a national effort following the Sept. 11 attacks to interest students at liberal arts colleges in careers as spies. McGuire said Dai was an administrator and that the program did not teach spy craft. He was also active in the conservative newspaper and other organizations at George Washington University.

So — during the war-driven Bush administration, federal education dollars went to this private southern protestant university ( “private” except over 80% of all students get financial aid to learn whatever they’re being taught there) to pay an extremely young extremist to administer a U.S. spy recruitment program? (A former position he couldn’t have brought much experience to nor gained much experience from, considering he is only 24 years old now, according to his FBI criminal file?)

Not that I’d damn them the way ACORN has been damned or the way Palin damned Obama over Bill Ayers, but it does seem to me the US Institute of Peace is an imperfect judge of true American character, considering I just found this:

Those who knew Naveed Haq said Saturday that to them he was an enigma, a puzzle that they wish they could have solved before his deadly rampage in a Seattle Jewish center.

Stunned and saddened by the news, some of Haq’s acquaintances recounted many of what they saw as the contradictions of his life.

He held a degree in electrical engineering and was the son of a successful engineer, yet he couldn’t keep a regular job. He was smart, creative and skilled as a writer. He recently won an essay contest for a U.S. Institute of Peace scholarship.

I wonder what the US Institute for Peace has to say about this report?

And what the heck does this mean, from his bio blurb?

. . .an Undergraduate Fellow on Terrorism of the Foundation for the Defense of the Democracies.

So, what he learned from his vaunted private university education and brought to his super-sensitive university administration role recruiting spies, is that “defending democracy” from terrorism justifies criminal conspiracies literally intended to terrorize American community organizations and even sitting US senators, over political ideology?

Isn’t that what we need intelligence (pun intended) to protect America AGAINST??

James O’Keefe, 25, famous for wearing a pimp costume in a video that embarrassed the ACORN, was sentenced to three years probation, 100 hours of community service and a $1,500 fine. . . .

After sentencing Wednesday, O’Keefe and the others were taken to a probation office for processing. O’Keefe said he might release a statement later in the day.

p.s. he didn’t “embarrass” the ACORN so much as destroy them with his video lies, for which there has been no accountability even called for, much less applied. Maybe this is one of those OJ substitute-justice things?

“As soon as O’Keefe and his partner-in-crime left the ACORN location, Mr. Vera called the police to report the entire incident. It turns out that Vera had been playing along with O’Keefe in an effort to ensnare O’Keefe and Giles whom Vera believed were in the act of breaking the law by proposing to engage in the importing of young women to become prostitutes.

Oops.

As part of the settlement, Mr. O’Keefe was required to say that he ‘regrets any pain’ he caused Mr. Vera—although I have some doubts as to whether O’Keefe has been losing any sleep over his illegal behavior and the harm he did to Mr. Vera.

A report issued by the California Attorney General in 2010 revealed that O’Keefe and Giles were given immunity from prosecution (a serious mistake in my opinion) in exchange for turning over the complete and unedited tapes that O’Keefe shot in Los Angeles, San Francisco and National City where O’Keefe worked his magic on Juan Carlos Vera.

The AG’s report highlighted how Mr. O’Keefe edited his videos to appear as if he was engaging in his ACORN hi-jinks wearing ‘stereotypical 1970’s pimp garb,” the intent being to suggest that ACORN employees would willingly do business with someone dressed in this manner. However, it turns out that O’Keefe was actually wearing a coat and tie when he entered the ACORN offices. The report also stated that ACORN employees ‘may be able to bring a private suit against O’Keefe and Giles for recording a confidential conversation.’

Here’s hoping that Mr. Vera is but the first of many to take advantage of the opportunity to bring such a legal action.

Oddly, a Google scan revealed no coverage of the settlement in Breitbart.com or any of the other conservative media who so enjoyed Mr. O’Keefe’s exploits.

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